# How to Evaluate Offline Conversions

<h2>What are conversions?</h2><br>
<p>The marketing space, just like any industry, often sees reoccuring words appear again and again. Simply defined, a conversion is known in marketing as the point at which a recipient of a marketing message performs a desired action.</p>
<p>
Now let’s delve a bit deeper. A conversion criteria is used to define a sale condition that is used to measure marketing performance. A "successful" conversion implies that a positive engagement or sale has occurred, such as when a caller speaks with an agent for a specified period of time, or if a customer purchases a product or service. 
</p>
<p>
By tracking the volume of successful conversions they generate, marketers can continuously tweak the quality of their leads and monitor the performance of their advertising efforts. In addition to marketers, campaign owners also track the amount of new clients they receive from their advertising efforts.
</p>
<h2>
  <br>
  How do online conversions work?
</h2><br>
<p>
  Online conversions can be directly attributed back to their original referrer
  at the point of sale.&nbsp;
</p>
<p>
  <strong><em>Online conversions can be attributed in a variety of ways</em>:</strong>
</p>
<ul>
  <li>
    <span style="font-family:-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Using a tracking URL that directly leads to a sale at a webstore.</span>
  </li>
  <li>
    <span style="font-family:-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Converting calls by timing the length of an inbound sales call.</span>
  </li>
  <li>
    <span style="font-family:-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Verifying a promotional code or offer that is unique to a particular advertising campaign.</span>
  </li>
  <li>
    <span style="font-family:-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Firing an event-based trigger when conversion criteria is met. For example, when a phone call leads to a sale, a new account is then created or a membership subscription becomes  activated on the clients platform<br></span>
  </li>
</ul>
<p>
  Since these digital events can be confirmed and evaluated in real time, the
  engagements are easily attributable back to their originating marketer.
</p>
<p>
Non-digital customer interactions are more difficult to identify in a sales cycle. For example, a customer could view an advertisement or visit a landing page but then decide to order the product at a later date or visit a physical location and make the purchase in person. This disconnect presents a challenge because a sale might not happen over a digital platform or phone call, making it difficult to know exactly who to attribute a sale to. 
</p>
<h2>
  <br>
  How do offline conversions work?
</h2><br>
<p>Evaluating offline conversions is a three step process:</p>
<ol>
  <li>
    <strong>The initial impression of an advertisement needs to be documented</strong>.<br>
    <br>
    When working with Google Ads or Facebooks Lead Ads, impressions that your
    advertisements gather can be
    <em><strong>recorded into an "impression list"</strong></em> which stores
    customer engagements with an advertisement. An impression list record is
    comprised of a prospective customers contact information and the advertisement
    instance that was viewed or engaged with. Impression records have a "best
    before date" which is the amount of time that the impression is valid for ( typically 30-90 days ).<br>
    <br>
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>A successful sales engagement will attempt to ping the impressions list.&nbsp; <br><br></strong>When
    a customer later decides to purchase a product, the
    <strong><em>impression list is pinged</em></strong> using the customer contact
    details in order to check if this sale can be attributed to a previous advertisement
    impression. For example, when purchasing at a physical store, you might
    recall a cashier once asking for your name, email address and postal code
    in order to receive a discount or qualify for a promotional offer. These
    are common attributes used to ping impression lists that are stored on Google
    Ads or Facebook Lead Ads.<br>
    <br>
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Record matching sales to impressions. <br><br></strong>If a customer has
    previously engaged with a particular advertisement within a given window of time,
    a <em><strong>conversion event </strong></em>is triggered to document that
    a successful offline conversion has occurred. The attributed publisher or
    marketer that created the advertisement can then be accredited for that sale.&nbsp;<br>
    <br>
  </li>
</ol>
<p>
  This is an example of how you can "bridge the gap" and attribute offline activities back to
  online interactions when using Facebook Lead Ads or Google Ads.</p>
<br>
<p> This offline conversion process applies to other advertising mediums as well. For example, attributing offline engagements for emails or flyers are frequently done through the use of specific promo codes. The resulting “impression list” is comprised of addresses that have previously received a promo code. In order to claim the promotional offer, a consumer would have to provide a valid address at the point of sale. Anytime the promotional code is used by a consumer, the point of sale can then ping the impression list and attribute the source of that engagement accurately.</p>
  <br>
<p>
  Offline conversions help marketers accurately attribute generated revenue based
  on individual advertisements when a conversion occurs outside of a digital
  platform.
</p>
<br>
<h2>Setting up offline conversions on Facebook | Google Ads</h2><br>
<p>
  Facebook Lead Ad and Google Ad platforms have native access to vast amounts of
  social media accounts, consumer contact information and engagement data. Both
  platforms process data from billions of users every day and actively record every
  engagement on their platforms. This makes these platforms extremely effective at creating
  impression lists for ads that were delivered using those platforms.
</p>
<p>
  Offline conversion implementation is unique for each campaign. For example, some
  organizations find it easier to collect sales data and then process all sales
  generated at the end of the month. Some more established retail chains have systems
  in place that can ping back to an existing impression list immediately to evaluate
  if any successful offline conversions occurred, such as the use of a "membership" or "club" card.&nbsp;
</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>
  <strong>For Facebook Lead Ad users</strong>: Start by viewing the introductory
  <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/help/197717547422805" target="_self">Facebook video covering offline conversions</a></b>,&nbsp;then
  follow along with their step by step guide to prepare your campaigns for offline
  conversions.
</p>
<p>
  <strong>For Google Ad users</strong>: Start by reading the&nbsp;introductory&nbsp;<b><a href="https://support.google.com/google-ads/topic/7280668?hl=en&amp;ref_topic=3119145" target="_self">Google Ads guide to offline conversions</a></b>,
  then follow along with their step by step guide to prepare your campaigns for
  offline conversions.
</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>How does it all come together using Retreaver?</h2><br>
<p>
  Facebook and Google already provide several resources for tracking digital impressions
  and engagements on their platform; - however you will still require a reliable
  call tracking platform to provide you with additional engagement/conversion data
  if your campaigns need to process inbound phone calls.<br>
  <br>
</p>
<p>
  <strong>Retreaver helps advertisers build impression lists using its caller tagging abilities. </strong>
</p>
<ol>
  <li>
    <em><strong>Retreaver</strong> <strong>provides a unique tracking number</strong></em>
    that you place on your advertisements.<br>
    <br>
  </li>
  <li>
    Inbound
    <em><strong>calls are then processed through your customized Retreaver call campaign</strong></em>
    and tagged with any kind of attributes necessary to make effective reporting,
    routing and conversion decisions.<br>
    <br>
  </li>
  <li>
    Retreaver automatically creates and
    <em><strong>updates customer profiles at the end of a call</strong></em>
    using a customer relationship manager of your choice. Callers and their attributes
    will be stored in your impression list.<br>
    <br>
  </li>
  <li>
    When that same customer later converts, the pinged
    <em><strong>impression list can trigger a conversion event</strong></em>
    and send that call data back into your ad platform account.<br>
    <br>
  </li>
</ol>
<p>
  Offline conversions will help you close the gap between digital and non-digital
  conversions.
</p>
<p>
  <em>View the following Retreaver guides to learn more about the available offline conversion methods:</em>
</p>
<p>
  Retreaver Guide:
  <b><a href="https://help.retreaver.com/hc/en-us/articles/360031081292" target="_self">Integrating with Facebook Lead Ads</a></b>
</p>
<p>
  Retreaver Guide:
  <b><a href="https://help.retreaver.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000568526" target="_self">Integrating with Google Ads</a></b>
</p>
<br>
<hr>
  <h3>Looking to analyze your call campaigns using Retreaver?</h3>
<p>
  <b><a href="https://retreaver.com/about#contact" target="_self">Contact Retreaver</a></b>
  for an online demonstration, We will provide you with all
  the resources you need to optimize your advertising outreach, maximize sales
  results and deliver excellent customer service.
</p>